A/N: This chapter has slightly mature content. 

Blake Cavendish was utterly lost in a haze of desire as he watched Sophia's rather luscious bottom scurry away from him and up the stairs. As she clambered up that wooden planks, she lifted her skirts, revealing her trim ankles. They were just ankles after all, but Blake's mind was suddenly filled with all sorts of unbidden thoughts of what he could do to her with his fingers and his tongue. He could trace her ankle and then her calves and move up to her thighs and then further up to her...

Blake was snapped out of his fantasy by her snapping, impatient fingers.

"What are you staring at?" Sophia exclaimed from the top of the staircase glaring at Blake who was a few steps below. Noticing that his flashing green eyes were bound to the skin around her exposed ankle, she immediately dropped her skirts that she had grasped in her hand and harrumphed.

"Nothing now, unfortunately," Blake said confidently, giving her a small smile that turned her cheeks red.

He knew he should stop. Jesting and flirting with her always landed into trouble but he couldn't help it. Besides, he found her blush oddly endearing and her frustration now oddly amusing.

Sophia rolled her eyes and harrumphed again, flashing him a look of vague distrust. "I don't know what kind of game you're playing, Lord Alton, but I don't like it one bit."

He didn't know either. What on earth was he doing? The right thing would be to send Lady Sophia home. She always scrambled his brains so, but with the glass of wine he had consumed earlier, his wits were all the more lost. He shouldn't do anything he would regret but it seemed as if his mind and body had other ideas. .

"Where is this chest of yours? We must not dally much longer. I have to return home soon."

He caught up to her and for a moment, they just stood side by side on the last step, mere breaths away and just looked at each other. Up closer and in the limited light of the candles that decked the halls, her blue eyes seemed to be a dark violet-like the color of the sky before a storm.

When she cleared her throat impatiently again, he smiled and gestured with his head to follow him. Sophia trailed after him, suspicion and distrust still abundant in her eyes. He would have expected nothing less.

They both stepped into the well-furnished bedroom. The bed was right in the center, dark navy sheets going well with the deep brown wood. A bedside drawer of the same wood rested near it. A shelf of books ran along one wall, and the other had a large cabinet. Near the window on the opposite end of the room, a large comfortable chaise rested and next to it a large trunk.

Noticing Sophia awkwardly standing by his bedside, Blake gestured her over to the rather large trunk. As if revealing a big act, he threw open the lid of the chest with a flourish, revealing a row of beautiful necklaces and rings, of different sizes shapes and a variety of precious gems. Buried under these jewels were dresses and silks, in every shade possible. Sophia gave out an audible gasp.

"These... these are beautiful. Did you say you got them from India?" she asked, her voice breathy and high with exhilaration. Her eyes were filled with wonder and marvel and her eyes glinted as brightly as the gems below her.

Blake suddenly wished at that moment he could paint, so he could capture that look forever on paper.

"Yes. I had it ordered as soon as it was a surety that I would marry your sister. It's both my gift to her marriage and some more to settle your father's debts. I want you to pick out a ring your sister would like, and a necklace as well. As her premarital gift. And though we are to be married, I do not know much of her tastes in jewels." It was true but technicalities, he didn't need Sophia's opinion. He was glad he had chosen to get it as he got to see this beautiful wonderous expression play across her features.

"Of course, I'll help. But these...there are beautiful. I haven't seen or owned something like this in a long time." Sophia replied, as her fingers traced the ornately carved jewelry. All these jewels put together could raise the money in her family's bank accounts and keep them going for years. She pointed to an emerald one. "My mother had something like that once before she had to sell it."

Sophia whirled towards him and gave him a vulnerable, tender smile. "She had the same eyes as my sister and I, but in the sunlight, hers always used to turn this beautiful sea-blue-green and you could see flecks of emeralds when she wore the necklace."

"You should keep it."

Sophia stared at him aghast. "No, I could never. No. That's improper."

"My father was a sullen, unloving man who I didn't hold much affection for but sometimes I wish I had something of his to remember him by, aside from the boxes on my ear. Take it, Sophia." He reveled in the way her name sounded on his tongue like it was meant to always be.

She regarded him with bright blue eyes that swam in the shadows of the room, unsure before finally nodding. "Thank you. Now I must choose one for my sister, which is what I actually came for."

After a few moments, Sophia settled on a ring and necklace set made of gold and garnets. "That one. Colette would like that one. It would fair well with her taste and her complexion in general. She would be quite fetching if she wore that and utterly pleased if you gave that to her."

Blake took it out of her hands and placed it in a box for safekeeping to maintain appearances, though it would never be given to his once to-be bride. In a low and husky voice, he whispered, "And you, my lady? If you had to choose for your marriage?" His gruff and low voice clearly affected Sophia because she drew in a quaking breath and looked up at him with pleasantly surprised eyes.

He didn't think she would deign to answer considering the impropriety of the question but she gestured at a simple chain of sapphires. "That one. It's beautiful. It reminds of the skies and the ocean dancing together, a colossal mess of the most beautiful hues of blue." Her eyes crinkled up as a smile stole her face with breathtaking happiness as she envisioned that picture in her mind.

Blake, at that very moment, knew he had never seen anything more gorgeous.

Without speaking, he removed it from the chest and held it up to her neck. "May I?" he asked, his fingers slightly touching the nape of her neck. Her throat bobbed up and down as she gulped nervously.

"I don't think that is wise, Lord Cavendish."

"Please. I would love to see you wear it, if only for a few moments."

She briefly considered it and then nodded. Her hands flew up to her hair and she held it up as Blake he fastened the clasp of the necklace. His fingers lingered for a moment too long causing Sophia to squirm under his touch.

Blake knew he should stop, yet as he inhaled the summery scent of her, he could not make himself back away.

He gently guided her towards the full-length mirror in his room and her eyes alighted with awe. The smile that broke over her face was the sun breaking over the horizon, lighting up everything around her. "It's absolutely beautiful!" Her eyes seemed to sparkle with a thousand lights reflecting from the necklaces, a collision of blue fireworks and dancing flames.

Blake knew Sophia was talking about the necklace but to him, that thought was more suited to the bearer.

"I am glad you think so. It's yours to keep if you wish to," Blake said, but halfway through his sentence, Sophia started to shake her head persistently.

"I cannot accept. It is a gift meant for your bride, and not to mention," she held up the necklace he had already gifted her, "you've already given me one." she murmured as she deftly unfastened the necklace. She pried open his curled fingers and stuffed the sapphire necklace into the small gap provided.

"If that concludes our business, I will be taking my leave." Sophia bowed her head stiffly and made her way out of the room, clutching her palms around the emerald necklace.

Blake's business with her hadn't concluded just yet. He didn't want it to.

He grabbed her wrist, and in a fluent move, spun her towards him until she collided against his chest. Her lips parted in surprise. Blake looked deep into her eyes, forcing a collision of forest green and ocean blue. "No. You aren't leaving just yet."

"Why not? I've helped you with what you needed me here for. I should be going. It's getting late. Unhand me," Sophia said, her tone incredulous and held a slight note of defiance but oddly also excitement as if challenging him to oppose her. Too bad she didn't know one of Blake Cavendish's favorite pastimes was conquering challenges, and Sophia was one he could not ever abdicate from. S

"Goodbye, Lord Cavendish." She stiffly said, trying to maintain a formal tone to disperse any untoward intentions he had towards her.

Blake's grip was not very tight for his arms were just loosely around her waist. One shove and she could leave. Yet, she did not squirm or try to get away, despite the intentions her words were conveying. She just blinked up at him through her dark eyelashes and gulped, gnawing at her bottom lip.

"Blake. Call me Blake." He growled out.

That proposition seems to rattle her a little and she broke away from his grasp, although her eyes were still trained on his.

Blake knew he should stop but he couldn't. Flashes of Sophia from five years ago to flit through his mind. Flashes of Sophia five minutes ago flitted through his mind. He wanted her and always had. Time hadn't changed that.

"That's much better, calling me Blake. It makes all the more sense for you to call me that now," he gruffly whispered as he slowly stalked towards her. She started to shuffle backward, with every inch he moved closer to her. Still, she did not run.

He breath hitched and he could see her throat bob as she gulped.

"Excuse me?" Sophia breathed out. Her hands trembled at her side.

"If we're to be intimate with one another, I want you always call me Blake," he growled. She thudded against the solid brown walls, and she grasped at for support as Blake towered over her, his deliciously wicked body pressing close to hers. He traced his fingers along her waist and hips and down her arms and her eyes unwillingly closed.

Then Blake kissed her like she was his salvation after a long string of hardships.

For several moments, Sophia stood still, unsure of what to do. She knew that he was her sister's fiancé, that she shouldn't endorse this, but she couldn't help but be drawn to him. Physically, but also intellectually. He was her other half.

And god forbid, she had controlled her emotions all this while, although the whole night all she wanted to do was feel his lips against hers, traces the hard muscles of his arms that bulged even through his clothes. She could surely stop now, right?

Yet, every repressed emotion that she had ever felt for Blake Cavendish came pouring out of the floodgates, and she couldn't make herself move away from him.

God, how she wanted him at that very moment and damn the consequences. Sophia tugged him closer by pulling at his shoulders.

He stuck his tongue out, just a little bit so it traced the outline of her lips. Surprised by his sudden outstretched probing tongue, she opened her mouth and that was all the invitation Blake needed.

His tongue entered her mouth and the kiss intensified. He pulled his mouth away from hers and went lower, kissing her neck, her collarbone, the base of her throat. She gasped in pleasure and her hands unwillingly grabbed his hair to keep him there.

"Oh Blake," she gasped. "What are you doing to me?"

Sophia pulled his head from where he was kissing her throat and dragged his mouth towards her, kissing him with a vigorous passion. She ran her fingers through his hair and yanked him closer to her, her fingers delving into his beautiful burnt sienna curls.

"Sophia," he breathed back.

Blake's entire body was screaming for release. He had hardened beneath his breeches and he needed Sophia at that very moment. And judging from her gasps and mewling, she wanted and needed him too. He pulled her away from the wall and towards the bed, their lips still locked in a fusion of exploding stars and heated fires.

He lay her softly on the bed and moved over her until they lay parallel. Without breaking their kiss, his fingers pulled off her stockings, drawers and undid her petticoats and flung them off, throwing them onto the floor. Now all that remained was her corset.

A garment that had proved to be disastrous to remove on several occasions with other women. With their strings running in every direction, it was a labyrinth.

But not with Sophia.

He skillfully undid the strings on them as well, and pulled it down sharply, revealing her breasts. Blake pulled away from the kiss just to look at them. Then Blake was lost. They were gorgeous to his eyes, the most beautiful things he had seen, round and perfectly tipped.

Noticing the direction of his hot gaze, Sophia immediately covered herself with her slim arms but Blake shook his head and gently pulled her arms away. "No, they're beautiful. Don't cover yourself up."

Sophia, lost in a world of passion, could only shyly nod.

To ease her discomfort, he bent down and kissed her neck and bit her earlobe. She gasped in pleasure, little thrills of heat shooting through her body. He moved lower, kissing her navel, her breasts, her waist and then... even down there.

Shocked, Sophia tried to wiggle away, but he held her hips in position with his strong fingers and probed with his tongue. Sophia could only gasp and moan in the pleasure of him, his tongue doing magical things in places no one but her had ever seen. He briefly stopped to unfasten his breeches,  fasten on a linen condom that he grabbed from the bedside drawer and then he was kissing her again, melding his lips to her own, kissing her as he could never get enough. He ran his fingers through her hair and moaned as his finger delved into its fine silkiness.

The sensations he invoked in Sophia was unimaginable. It felt scandalous and exciting.

It made her feel ever so alive.

When he finally decided that she was ready, he asked, "Yes?"

"Yes, Blake."

He entered her with a sharp thrust, momentarily forgetting that she still had her virtue. In the passion that threatened to destroy his world into fragments, he had completely forgotten about that one fact.

She stiffened beneath him as he lacerated through her and she tried to frantically push him off. Blake immediately stopped moving inside her, letting her get accustomed to him. He shushed her with soothing words and smoothened down her hair saying, "It's alright, it's alright."

Eventually, her body got familiar to his large size and when he slowly started moving inside her, her hips lolled right along with him.

"Oh," Sophia moaned as she looked at him with desire-filled eyes which quickly closed in pleasure as the pressure slowly built up in her. And soon, Sophia begged for sweet release and he gave it to her.

And it was a storm of pure magic and heaven blended together.

"Blake. My sweet Blake," she cried as shudders of pleasure darted through her and his own release came.

After they had finished, he rolled off of her, though they were still joined at the hips. She smiled sweetly up at him through narrowed, drowsy eyes.

"Blake, whatever have you done to me?" she smiled softly.

She raised a hand to his cheek and caressed it and then drifted off into the realm of sleep. Blake followed suit. 

A/N: Things have started to steam up between the two, and Blake had proven himself as a man who takes his seduction duties very well. What did you think of this chapter? Hot and heavy enough for you? Hopefully, it was not cringe considering this is based completely off of imagination and has no basis in actual experiences haha.

Readers! Thank you for taking the time to read this chapter! Be sure to vote, comment, and share it with others! Every single thing means the world to me! I love you all!